Megliola: Bradley Jr. comes back to Earth

You must have heard The Ballad of Jackie Bradley Jr. that was played over and over, extolling the spectacular meteor he’d turned into across Florida skies during the entire month of March. Well, it’s April now, the big-leagues season, and the ballad is less sung than whispered these days.

You must have heard The Ballad of Jackie Bradley Jr. that was played over and over, extolling the spectacular meteor he’d turned into across Florida skies during the entire month of March.

Well, it’s April now, the big-leagues season, and the ballad is less sung than whispered these days. Bradley Jr. is not the first rookie this has happened to. And if he’s having a difficult time hitting, his first slump is small sample-sized. Come on, 25 at bats?

It was impossible to not notice how Bradley Jr. did everything right, and some of it spectacularly, in spring training. The Red Sox plan was just to check out Bradley, get a daily feel for the kid. Let him play a few games before sending him to Triple-A. Even Bradley was on board with all that. He was cool with it.

Then they started playing games. Everybody’s thinking began to change.

We had heard so much about Bradley, the Red Sox’ top prospect, now we were getting our first look. Maybe he’d be a guy who could help the varsity by mid-season. At the very least he’d get a September call-up.

But Bradley did not have a silent spring. He was almost too good to be true. He wasn’t just going to make the team, he was going to be the Opening Day leftfielder in Yankee Stadium. No one saw that coming.

Now you can say manager John Farrell kept Bradley because he looked so damn good, or you could say Farrell’s decision was propped up by the organization, in its season of begging for forgiveness, realizing the fans wanted to see the phenom in left far more than they wanted to gaze at Jonny Gomes or Daniel Nava.

Fans love Bradley. He’s new blood, a breath of fresh air, young and fast, an elixir for the angry citizens of Red Sox Nation. He was baggage-free, someone to root for, finally. On Opening Day at Fenway, Bradley got the loudest pre-game ovation, a few decibels higher than the roar for the ever-popular Dustin Pedroia.

But Bradley’s start has been sluggish. He’s hitting a flyweight .120. Eight of his 25 at bats ended with a K. He never computed out to be a power hitter, but lately he hasn’t even reached the outfield. It’s been a spate of groundouts. Hey, he’s got great speed, but he’s looking at big-league infielders now, with strong arms. Beating out grounders becomes more difficult.

His best at bat might have been his first on Opening Day. When he was down 0-2 on the count to the estimable CC Sabathia, it was a pretty safe bet to everyone in Yankee Stadium or watching on TV that the southpaw ace would whiz strike three past the lefty rookie. Somehow, instead of panicking, Bradley coaxed a walk.

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A number of things could happen now. Bradley gets back in the lineup and stakes his case to be a starter; or they sit him against tough lefties; or they decide Triple-A is the way to go which, remember, was the original plan. He’s not going to hang around to pinch run or enter games for defensive purposes. Yes, he can run; yes he’s already shown brilliance with the glove. Those things won’t change. What Bradley needs is at-bats. If they come in a PawSox uniform, so be it.

Jackie Bradley is still the future. Maybe that future isn’t now, as in Right Now, but there is a star quality about him, a luminance, that can’t be ignored.

It’s a Red Sox team packed with new faces: Mike Napoli, Ryan Dempster, Stephen Drew, Joel Hanrahan, Shane Victorino, but Jackie Bradley became THE story in Florida, the one we most wanted to see.

He’s hit his first speed bump. Maybe he got it out of the way quickly. Let’s leave it at that. That’s all we can do, until we see what Jackie Bradley can really do.